In reply to UKC Articles:
An excellent, well written article.
Would just like to add my comments to a couple of points raised here.
Firstly the comments regarding top roping and it's potential for accelarating the rate at which lower offs wear out.
Well I would say that is a fair point and is particularly relevant where "P hangar" lower offs are concerned.
As has been pointed out above, a reasonable solution is to link lower off points together with maillons and chains to bring them to a single point lowering ring. This tends to even up the wear as the rings rotate and the wear point gets more evenly distributed.
However even this will still need replacing over time if top roping is excessive (or the route is just very popular).
Obviously all lowering off causes wear to some extent and probably the only way to keep wear to an absolute minimum is to only use the lowering point for the final lower off (ie; for the first person up to attach their own sling and krabs to the lower off fixings for everyone else to use for lowering off and then only use the lower off itself for clearing the route after the last persons ascent).
NB: and if you want to be really pedantic then even when climbing as a pair the first person should lower off a sling and krab and only the second person should use the lowering point (and yes I know none of us probably ever do this in practice, including me, but it's just a thought!!)
The second point here is the one regarding fund raising.
Again as has been pointed out above, many people are only to keen to pay something to help out and the main key to this (IMHO) is to make that as easy to do wherever possible.
It is also worth noting that in my experience people will often voluntarily make donations and both Dave Musgrove and myself (as well as others) can recount personal experiences of being given cash donations to the YBF by grateful climbers at various crags, particularly if they see you involved in gearing or re-equipping a route and therefore become aware of just what is involved in both terms of cost and time.
So many thanks to all those persons and to everyone who makes any contribution and lets do whatever we can to ensure that such monies ensure that any fixed equipment remains safe and reliable over the years, wherever bolts and lower offs are acceptable and in use.
Keith